how to handle a baby when you have eczema

For the first few days after having my little one, I was on such a high of nerves and adrenaline that I felt great! I had been on antibiotics while in the hospital, and after getting home my skin started to feel really dry. I started taking some probiotics and focusing on drinking lots of water (I knew getting enough sleep was a lost cause), and keeping my stress down.

Initially, my skin was calm enough that I had no problem doing skin-to-skin contact with baby Fi, but around week 4 or so I started to experience more flare symptoms- sweating, itching, redness- whenever I had the baby lay on me for too long. I started to have to wear long sleeves when holding her to not get overheated. I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but it may have also correlated when the humidity increased, and the temperature with it.

I’m not sure if it was due to the antibiotics, the temperature, the lack of sleep, the terrible diet I had in the hospital (think chicken fingers and ice cream for multiple meals in a day), or the hormone fluctuations but my skin definitely became more sensitive post-pregnancy. Though estrogen has been considered one of the reasons women can flare-up worse during pregnancy (see my post about pregnancy and eczema), after pregnancy the estrogen drops so it’s unclear what would be provoking my symptoms (besides the above mentioned items).

Either way I’ve had to be more creative about adjusting to life with a newborn. The biggest aspect I’ve had to cultivate is endless patience mixed with quick stress-reduction habits. My lackadaisical approach to getting house and life stuff done has been somewhat of a saving grace because my little one has wreaked havoc on my schedule. I’m exhausted in the afternoons, I have no idea what it feels like to sleep more than 3 hours at a time anymore, I tend to eat a bit worse now (mostly eating too many carbs and too much) because I lack the self control to stay as dietarily balanced when I’m sleep deprived. It’s something I’ll have to work on in the coming months.

I find ways to not focus on my skin when it’s getting all sweaty from holding her and I have learned to wear light layers or wrap a small blanket between her and myself when breastfeeding to avoid irritating the more sensitive skin areas like my stomach.

There are some inherently awesome aspects to having a newborn when you have eczema (at least in my experience). For one, I tend not to think about myself as much so I am not as aware when I am itchy. She keeps me busy to such an extent that even when I’m immersing my hands in water (which is traditionally a huge irritant) to give her a bath, I barely notice. Also, lately my core temperature seems to be evening out even as my skin fluctuates (which means that the hot, sweaty skin nights and cold shivers have been decreasing). I actually enjoy the cold temperature more than I used to, and I don’t enjoy basking in the sun for quite as long.

And overall I do think that my skin has been able to consistently heal slowly but surely. I feel as though I look more or less human again, what with the redness decreasing. I think the hormones from breastfeeding are helping my skin heal to some extent; I know my hair has gotten shinier, which is an awesome boon.